Boarding the plane of the Ministry of Land and Resources, Wu Youping was initially very happy. This was a plane designed for land surveying. In stable flight, the observer could observe the ground through a downward telescope and operate a camera or video camera to shoot the ground.

This twin-engine plane numbered 'Aerial Survey No. 2' flew in the sky with a graceful posture. Mountains, highlands, and fields presented another composition completely different from that on the ground in the telescope. Eye-catching marker points distributed on the ground one after another made Wu Youping feel how hard the comrades of the Land and Resources Bureau worked.

He thought he could watch for a long time, but Wu Youping soon found that he couldn't actually do it. Wu Youping sat on the row seat against the cabin wall in the cabin and chatted with the comrades of the Land and Resources Bureau.

The comrades of the Land and Resources Bureau were originally a bit constrained, but hearing Wu Youping frankly admit, 'Treating overlooking the earth as a means of relaxation is indeed pleasant. Treating this matter as work, it is easy to feel weary.'

The comrades immediately felt the labor sentiment of workers, and the distance with Wu Youping was instantly shortened. Those selected to board the plane were all excellent comrades; even if they felt weary, it would not delay them from completing their work well. While chatting, the comrades talked about whether any machine could be used to ensure the continuity of shooting. What these comrades worried about most in their work was missed shots. If shots were missed, they had to be re-shot, and the plane had to fly again. Not to mention being scolded, just flying again was tormenting.

Wu Youping liked chatting with the comrades very much; everyone spoke the truth. Everyone wanted to complete the work more easily, but the work could not be completed so easily. It seemed that he had not separated from the masses and had the same troubles as the laborers.

The survey plane could fly more than 600 kilometers, but it sent Wu Youping to an airport 200 kilometers away. Here was the airport of China Airlines, which had been established for more than a year. Domestic 12-seat passenger planes flew here. The plane was full of various civil servants and businessmen, all in a hurry. Wu Youping sat in the seat by the porthole, looking at the mountains and rivers of the motherland outside the window, feeling quite emotional in his heart.

The plane flew for two hours and finally arrived at the airport in the capital. People were already waiting at the airport. Seeing this, one of the travelers who looked like a businessman asked in surprise, "Is that Premier Wu?"

Wu Youping didn't know this businessman, and the guards also blocked between the two. Seeing this, the businessman could only say, "I met Premier Wu when I was doing business in the Northeast. Farewell." After speaking, he dragged his suitcase and walked out.

The comrades picking up the plane didn't care about such a small episode. After a simple meeting, they picked up Premier Wu Youping into the car and went straight to the hotel. The new capital, Zhengzhou, was originally an inconspicuous small city. It didn't start to have status until the Beijing-Hankou Railway set it as a first-class station. It had only been twenty or thirty years until now. If the Yellow River next to Kaifeng wasn't a suspended river, the new capital would naturally have landed in Kaifeng.

When the convoy passed a huge rammed earth wall, the reception personnel asked the driver to slow down and pointed to the rammed earth wall, saying, "Premier, this is the Shang Dynasty city wall ruins mentioned by the Chairman."

Wu Youping looked at these rammed earth walls that looked featureless. Initially, he thought they might be some earthen slopes. Even seeing it with his own eyes now, he couldn't imagine that these were ruins with a history of nearly 4,000 years.

Zhengzhou's most famous historical relic was originally only the 'Jinshui River.' Zichan, the Prime Minister of the State of Zheng in the Spring and Autumn Period, was highly praised by Confucius and regarded as a brother from another mother. After Zichan passed away, in order to commemorate Zichan, the people of Zheng threw 'gold jewelry' into the river as a memorial (gold in this era referred to golden bronze), hence the name 'Jinshui River.'

Unexpectedly, He Rui said this was a Shang Dynasty ruin, which dragged Zhengzhou's history directly to an era a thousand years older than the Spring and Autumn Period.

Seeing that Wu Youping was not interested, the greeting personnel ordered the car to speed up. The group rushed to the hotel where they were staying. The governors of Shanxi and Shaanxi had already arrived.

When governors met the Premier, of course, they talked about work. Everyone immediately talked about land reform in Shanxi and Shaanxi. Shaanxi Governor Zhang Yu was a native of Shanxi. He frankly stated, "Bandit suppression is basically completed, but land reform still takes time. Premier, there is so much environmental protection content in the agricultural work arranged by the central government for Shaanxi; the masses still can't quite understand it."

Wu Youping asked, "It's hard for anyone to understand this kind of thing. Can our comrades understand it?"

Zhang Yu hesitated for a moment and finally shook his head. "It would be good if half of the comrades really understood. Now we are promoting new planting methods, which takes time."

The reason why the capital was not moved to Kaifeng was because of the suspended river. In the national work arrangement, He Rui's work arrangement for Shaanxi was to restore ecology and reduce sediment flowing into the Yellow River.

What Wu Youping admired most about He Rui was that He Rui could always come up with solutions, instead of simply issuing an order and waiting for comrades to complete it. Regarding sediment control, He Rui spent a lot of effort and specifically proposed a complete set of plans. The agricultural plan among them surprised even Wu Youping.

Seeing that Wu Youping had absolutely no intention of compromising, Zhang Yu immediately stopped complaining. "Premier, more than two thousand cadres in Shaanxi received the 'Land Reclamation and Silting' commendation last year. They really made the local masses see the benefits of silting land."

Wu Youping had read the report and knew that these more than two thousand cadres were indeed working very hard.

Since the Tang Dynasty, Xi'an had never been truly considered as a capital again. Although there were various problems with the capital being in Xi'an because southern China had already been developed, these were not the most fundamental. By the Tang Dynasty, the Loess Plateau in the Northwest had long been full of gullies after more than two thousand years of savage deforestation. The natural environment no longer supported its economic needs as a capital.

By now, the vegetation on the Loess Plateau had been destroyed for more than 3,000 years, and the geographical conditions were even worse. He Rui targeted the important and unique gully control engineering system in areas with severe soil erosion on the Loess Plateau. The main purposes were flood detention, sediment retention, silting land, water storage, farmland construction, agricultural production development, and reduction of Yellow River sediment.

Reading such a high-sounding paragraph in the document, one would think He Rui proposed something incredible. In fact, it could be summarized in one sentence: 'Build a wall in the gully to trap mud and harvest grain.'

Wu Youping's patience wore thin with Zhang Yu's introduction. Zhang Yu continued talking about his work in the past year.

"...A silt dam refers to a dam structure built in various gullies in soil erosion areas for the purpose of trapping mud and silting land. The land formed by trapping mud and silting is called dam land. In the watershed gullies, dams used for silting land production are called silt dams or production dams. The Loess Plateau area has deep soil layers and widespread loess, characterized by uniform texture, loose structure, strong water permeability, easy disintegration, and fast dehydration and consolidation. It is a good dam building material and can be obtained locally..."

Wu Youping picked up the teacup and drank a mouthful of plain boiled water, feeling that the taste of plain boiled water in Henan was indeed inferior to the spring water in Beiping. This distracted Wu Youping a little; the people in Beiping couldn't drink water from the mountainous areas now...

"Premier Wu, with the thorough implementation of the policy of returning farmland to forests and grasslands, a huge surplus labor market has been provided for the construction of silt dams," Zhang Yu said.

Now Wu Youping's attention was not only immediately pulled back to the conversation, but he also became much more spirited. Looking at Zhang Yu, Wu Youping felt that he had not chosen the wrong person. Zhang Yu could finally grasp the core of the current work: 'develop the economy.'

There are two ways to develop the economy: one is to find a way to make big money. Projects that make big money are always few and require favorable timing, geographical location, and human harmony, which cannot be forced. If there is no road to making big money, the remaining road is 'providing a large number of employment opportunities.'

As long as employment opportunities increase, at a time when the agricultural population accounts for more than 80% of China, people's income can increase. When people's income increases, consumption power goes up. This is the new economic thinking.

Zhang Yu continued to narrate the work progress. "Shaanxi is not all gullies and ravines, but the complete flat land has long been distributed. The places where our more than two thousand cadres went are all very bad places. The comrades led the 6+5 in the village to build dams, and the people disapproved very much."

The so-called 6+5 was an experience summarized during the Northeast period. It referred to 3 temporary village heads + 3 militia leaders, a total of 6 people. There were 5 militiamen in each village, which made it 6+5. The reason for this arrangement was that village heads and militia leaders had to rotate constantly to receive training. In order to maintain the continuity of management and manpower, there had to be such a number.

Initially, the organization didn't think so much, but now it was found that organizing in this way could quickly complete the concentration of manpower. And such manpower allocation obviously provided more benefits to Shaanxi locally. Building earthen dams in gullies required a lot of manpower. This 6+5 happened to provide manpower that could barely complete the work. Coupled with the cadres sent down, a village could easily gather more than 20 strong laborers.

"When the rainy season came last spring, fellow villagers everywhere stood on the mountain ridges watching the excitement. It was really damn... really standing by the river watching the boat capsize. The fellow villagers talked a lot, thinking that those dams would definitely be washed away by mountain torrents. As a result, the dams held up, and a piece of fertile field was silted up that year. The fellow villagers initially thought that this kind of 'raw land' couldn't be planted. The comrades borrowed livestock to farm, and after the autumn harvest, there was indeed a bumper harvest, so the fellow villagers believed it." After Zhang Yu finished speaking, he looked at Wu Youping.

"Raw land... is the land in Shaanxi really that good?" Wu Youping also cared about this. According to Chinese tradition, land had to be cultivated for several years before it could become 'mature land,' and grain output would stabilize. The land opened up in the first year was called 'raw land,' and often nothing could be grown.

"I didn't expect it to be true either," Zhang Yu sighed. However, what Zhang Yu wanted to say at this time was related to this 'raw land,' but unrelated to the raw land itself.

"Premier, after these lands were opened up, the grain in the first year was naturally divided by the 6+5. After discussing, the comrades of the Shaanxi Provincial Government wanted to do two things. One is to mobilize the masses to build water conservancy projects, and the other is to take 30% of the harvest from the opened land and give it to the masses who opened the land. However, some comrades said that these risks were borne by the government. I wonder what the Premier thinks?"

This statement was too vague, so Wu Youping could only ask, "Does the 30% you mentioned refer to tax exemption for 3 years of land reclamation? Or has tax already been collected in the first year, and this is 30% after tax collection?"

Zhang Yu hurriedly explained, "Last year, those lands were all opened up by our comrades. If taxes are not paid, it is completely inappropriate. But the lands opened up afterwards will be opened up by fellow villagers. And fellow villagers also have concerns now; they just feel that these lands are useful, but don't know what will happen in the future. So, we are thinking of directly spending money from the finance to build dams. After the land is silted up, it will be cultivated by fellow villagers who specialize in farming. At the end of the year, we will collect taxes based on the harvest."

After listening, Wu Youping felt that this guy Zhang Yu was too cunning; this was asking for a budget in disguise. Of course, Wu Youping also knew that he would definitely agree to this budget. From the perspective of new economic thinking, this money indeed provided employment opportunities and also increased grain output.

So Wu Youping didn't commit himself but asked another question Zhang Yu mentioned, "Are you preparing to mobilize the masses to build water conservancy projects this year?"

Seeing Wu Youping's serious expression, Zhang Yu sat up straight. "This place in Shaanxi won't change unless great efforts are made. Rest and recuperation may not be suitable for this place."

For a moment, the atmosphere in the venue became solemn. Everyone kept silent, waiting for others to speak first.